Central Control Room. Behind Yeon-woo, who was staring at the screens, the Guest Without Taste approached without a sound.
"What a fascinating scene."
"With all due respect, this is a restricted area for authorized personnel only, sir."
"Awfully cold for soone I'll soon be sharing als with. Didn't you promise to consider taking on as this hotel's chef once this 'event' is over?"
"That's a discussion for after your official hiring."
"To think that the being called the god of vampires would be such a stickler for rules."
Yeon-woo turned his head to look at the man and smiled.
"Is there truly a god this pitiful in the world?"
"That's what I like about you."
"No matter how high the authority, it's not as though the pay increases. The least I can do is enforce the rules strictly so we can both rest easy. In case you weren't aware, this hotel runs not on faith but on labor ground from my own spine."
"...Well, that, too."
Even having beco the transcendent being Velmareth, he still maintained a human sense of principle.
'His temperant seems to have changed quite a bit, and yet.'
Does the essence remain unchanged?
The man tapped the floor lightly with his cane. An armchair materialized from thin air, and he sank deep into it, then swept his eyes over the countless screens filling the wall.
"At minimum, within this hotel, it wouldn't be strange for you to be called that. You're even manipulating ti at will."
"It's been a long ti since I lost my ordinary sensibilities, but it still sounds like too much. Calling it 'manipulating ti' is generous--it's no different from an administrator abusing the system under deadline pressure."
"You seem more acerbic than before."
"I've started wondering whether there's any point in holding back."
"Oh...."
He'd had this much to say all along and had been holding it in? Setting that aside, though.
"So what is that ga about?"
The man's gaze rested on the two humans, accompanied by the white owl, wandering the aberrant corridor on screen.
"Which attempt is this?"
"Including this run, the eighth."
"And they have no mory?"
"The repetitions seem to be giving Mr. Kwon Do-heon a growing sense of it."
"He'll think his proficiency suddenly spiked."
"A useful talent for this kind of ga."
He added.
"Mr. Kwon Do-heon has a knack for seeing through to the essence of things."
"Is that important in this 'ga' of yours?"
"It's similar to catching the 'clues' the ga system provides."
Like a certain spot glinting, for instance.
"...That's not really my area of interest...."
"The years are showing."
"Hearing that from a newborn spirit does twist the gut."
The man's brow furrowed slightly. Electronic amusents of the flesh-lumps were not to his taste.
"The atmosphere is different from 'last midnight,' isn't it? The hotel seems to be multiplying infinitely. You've turned this place into 'The Gaps,' I see. The corridors expanding exponentially like a living organism--impressive."
"It wasn't an intentional design."
Yeon-woo shrugged.
"More of a system error than anything resembling The Gaps."
"Could you use terms familiar to ? Does that an the endless maze out there wasn't built as a trap to tornt them?"
"It could be repurposed as an event, but not at the mont. It's a space I haven't been able to touch, and if mishandled, it could lead to a fatal incident."
"Surprising that there are spaces even you can't control."
"When the budget and manpower fall short, even an administrator is powerless."
Yeon-woo pointed to a spot on the screen.
"This is a space that lay dormant within the hotel's system. 'Dead Data,' so to speak."
Just as opening a ga's files might reveal unused dummy data left behind like residue, that space, too, was a bugged area generated during the hotel's maintenance and repair process--the so-called 'Ho-deco.'
"I've gotten lost in there many tis myself."
"You?"
"Yes."
Through gaplay, of course.
"I've learned the tricks by now."
aning the phenonon had existed since back then.
"Once The Gaps open, the dead space expands infinitely, and when The Gaps close, it evaporates again. A purely anomalous phenonon, nothing more."
"Yet it's rather fitting scenery for this place."
Unlike the hotel's elegantly ordered exterior, that space was saturated with unrefined unpleasantness. Sufficiently harmful to gnaw away at human cognition.
"In your 'ga,' wouldn't a bizarre space like that make for excellent material?"
"Waxing romantic about a condemned zone that's top priority for safety inspection--the mindset of soone freeloading outside the rules truly is different."
"I thought we agreed to let that go?"
"You'll have to forgive --the repair estimate for that place is giving a headache as we speak. No matter how good the material, if a guest gets lost and perishes, it's a perfect case for prosecution under workplace safety laws."
"I'm feeling rather hen-pecked."
"That's not just a feeling. But to continue with the topic you raised--fortunately, Seo is with them, so they won't be lost forever."
Seo, the mage who had beco half-staff.
She currently took the form of a white owl, but her essential talent had not been extinguished. If anything, coming under the General Manager's command had revived a shoot that had withered.
'A talent for finding the way.'
An intuitive power she'd possessed as an Artist, before she'd settled into her sibling's body.
The vampire seed to recognize it too, letting out a low chuckle.
"You've acquired an excellent guide. I'll comnd the foresight of placing her in advance. Fascinating indeed."
"You flatter . I rely assigned a capable staff mber where she was needed to reduce my own workload. On that note, there's sothing I'd like to say."
Yeon-woo looked at the vampire. His smile was indistinguishable from a blank expression.
"Is there anything to be done about that theatrical manner of speaking?"
"Now you're even picking on my speech?"
"I tried to adapt out of respect for your age, but the listener's fatigue doubles. If you intend to work at our hotel, so modernization will be necessary."
In summary:
"Could we try speaking a bit more normally?"
"Live as long as I have and you'd change your mind."
"If the result of living several centuries is causing a scene in soone else's establishnt, I'd rather not age that way."
The deeper he got entangled with the hotel's monsters, the more juvenile his own speech beca. The sensation of the boundary between normal and abnormal blurring. A significant effect of deeply synchronizing with General Manager Mode.
His thought processes felt increasingly simple, but as long as it didn't hinder hotel operations, it didn't matter. He concluded as much, as though it were obvious.
[Pardon? Yes.]
Coco seed to agree.
"It must be a talent she hasn't exercised in a long ti, so I'm glad Seo is holding up."
"May I ask a question, as a friend?"
"By all ans."
"How did you do it?"
The vampire found Seo's transformation endlessly curious.
"Her form being changed by the witch's influence, I can accept, but--"
"The term 'witch' is too aggressive. Please use 'White Crow.' She may be wandering outside for now, but she'll be joining our family soon enough."
"Quite generous to the one who ate you alive. Very well. I understand that the 'White Crow' caused her to shed her human body and beco an owl, but what about that power?"
True to being the oldest vampire on Earth, he saw through to Seo's essence.
"The human Seo had no power as an Artist. Seeing that she lost the talent the mont she switched into her mage sibling's body, I'd assud the power followed the flesh."
"That's a rather feeble statent for a Lidmar."
Yeon-woo continued, as if puzzled.
"Blood carries five elents."
"Life, mory, Emotion, Will, and Soul. The foundation of Blood Magic."
"Yes. I simply made use of that."
"But what constituted her was her sibling's blood, wasn't it?"
"The mory and the Soul remained Seo's own."
"You've done sothing mad."
The vampire grasped the intent imdiately.
"You amplified the remaining traces?"
"There was ample material."
It was a story lacking in scientific basis, but it was similar to cases where organ transplant recipients adopt the donor's habits, or where blood types change after bone marrow transplants.
If the core of a human--mory and Soul--remained, nothing was impossible.
"The sibling's body becoming the White Crow's thrall blurred its original essence considerably. It's less the result of my hand and more a secondary gain from falling under the influence of two labyrinths."
Simply put, as the body's influence diminished and the soul's influence rose proportionally, what surfaced was not Seosang the mage but Seo the Artist.
The vampire sneered at that.
"Ever heard of the Ship of Theseus?"
"As long as mory and Soul serve as the pillars, the essence does not change."
No matter how thoroughly the exterior is broken and altered, in the end it is still called 'the Ship of Theseus.'
"That's what matters."
"That's exactly what I hate about you."
"You said you liked --your words keep changing."
"I wouldn't be like this if you hadn't force-fed humanity."
"You were enjoying every bite, and now you're taking it out on ?"
Friends really should be chosen with care.
'And I've always had spectacularly bad luck with friends.'
At the very least, he himself needed to stay sharp.
***
"Wasn't that the corridor we already passed?"
"Hmm, it's similar but a bit different~"
"How on earth are you telling them apart...."
Do-heon's weary tone earned a shrug from Seung-jae.
"Stop being lazy and look properly, you punk. Making your uncle do all the work."
"I would if there were anything to see."
"Where else are you going to find eyesight as sharp as my nephew's?"
"I'm losing my mind...."
His eyes ached like they were dying. What did eyesight matter?
"We've been walking and walking and there's no end. That bloodstain pattern on the carpet? I've seen it three tis now."
> A cruciform maze space where identical wallpaper and carpet patterns proliferate endlessly, like living organisms.
"Is that really all?"
"The corridor length does seem to subtly stretch and shrink."
> The angles of the corners are microscopically warped, as if following Non-Euclidean geotry.
"Fuck, what even is Non-Euclidean geotry?"
"Well you see, Non-Euclidean geotry is a branch of modern geotry that began by negating one of the axioms established by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in his Euclidean geotry~"
"Too long."
"It's the math for describing curved space."
Seung-jae turned to his nephew with his signature genial smile.
"That thing--you still see it? The guide window, you called it."
"Ever since the General Manager or whatever he is rang that bell in the lobby, it's been like this."
"Interfering with your movent?"
"If I'm not focusing on it, it fades from view, so not really...."
"Strange gift to give, that man."
He looked at the owl perched on Do-heon's shoulder.
"This one too."
"Why is it doing this to ? The feathers are tickling my face."
"My, it must like you a lot to do that. Just keep it close~"
At those words, the owl wore an expression of 'I'm the one tolerating this,' but Do-heon couldn't see it from his angle, and Seung-jae lacked the talent for reading owl expressions, so no one noticed. He continued.
"Looks like this one's playing guide."
"Well...."
> The direction the white owl turns its head is notable.
"I think so."
It had flown ahead a few tis, but apparently the humans' cautious pace wasn't fast enough for its liking, so now it simply indicated directions with head turns.
"Whether we can trust this at face value, though."
"The labyrinth warped the space. Things must've really gone sideways starting at the midnight the Manager ntioned."
Under bright lighting, a clean corridor without a single sound stretching on and on.
"Without the owl's help, we couldn't find the way anyway."
> A geotric arrangent of corridors that renders human sense of direction and reason aningless.
"If you're that worried, look around for clues."
"My eyeballs feel like they're going to fall out."
"Oh, this fragile boy, what shall I do~ Your uncle's heart aches."
"Aches my ass...."
Was it the oppressive nature of infinite space? Do-heon, clutching his throbbing head as he walked, noticed a withered plant pot tucked in a corner of the corridor.
> [Optional Observation: Wilted Plant in Corridor]
> A completely dead plant. Dig through the soil and instead of roots, you'll find a mass of tightly tangled strands--black hair or blood vessels, impossible to tell--extending beyond the bottom of the pot into unseen depths, pulsing.
"Ah, I'm going to hurl."
"With this much space, a little puke should be fine, right?"
"Is that sothing you actually say?"
> The harder you try to rationally comprehend the structure, the more your head feels like it's splitting.
"Oh fuck, the headache wasn't just a headache."
The throbbing had been worsening steadily since stepping into the corridor.
"Goodness, you had a headache too? You should've said so."
"Why, got painkillers?"
"No, but if it's contamination, we'd have to make a drastic call."
aning kill him. Do-heon's face went white.
"Please tell that's a joke."
"I wish it were~"
"Uncle, what the hell do you actually do?"
"I make a living with my mouth~"
"Not the gun?"
"They're pretty much the sa thing."
The way he cackled shouldn't have felt familiar, and yet it did. Having received a murder threat, he should have been more frightened than this. Sothing was off.
'Am I going crazy right now?'
Or perhaps he'd already gone crazy before the mories were lost.
***
......
......
They say most Artists are morally bankrupt. So are born that way; others get pushed into it by the world. You seem like the latter, Do-heon. Getting crushed as we speak.
--What difference does knowing that make?
At the very least, you should know you're mad before your eyes go sideways and you send your old man to an early grave. Follow your uncle. I can at least teach you how to go mad gracefully.
--And then what changes?
Breathing gets a little easier.
Because that place,
it's full of nothing but madn.
--......
--...Let's go together.
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